Customer Reviews

The Honk and Holler Opening Soon

5 star:		(133)
4 star:		(54)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Honk and Holler Opening Soon by Billie Letts What a terrific book! I loved the characters from the moment I set eyes on the first page. In all honestly, I waited to start it until I had completely finished another book.(an 800 page thing that really got tedious in parts-but I did finish, a mistake not to be repeated) The story opens in a small cafe in OK where we find Caney a Vietnam Vet,with a lot of baggage and unresolved issues. Also, we find his friend Molly O,a woman with her own set of problems. Everything is as normal as can be expected, until one-day in walks an Indian woman with a three legged dog looking for a job. The main characters in this book are great, but it is the minor characters and how they respond to the unfolding events that kept me turning pages to see what happens next. The town gossip, the three elderly guys that meet every morning for breakfast, the town villain, all add contrast to the picture beautifully painted with words by Billie Letts. I'll tell you right off I love to read, however, I am not a fast reader and for me to go through a book in a few days is a feet in itself. I very rarely do that unless I am really enjoying the story....I finished this book in 3 days. I found myself reading late into the night and crawling into bed(where I read) earlier than normal.

Once I started reading this book, I couldn't put it down. With the threat of a freeze, I crawled in the bed and snuggled down and read, and didn't surface until I had read the last page.

Ms. Letts has created a group of characters who I cared about. I wanted to know what was going on in their lives to the point that I was growling at those who treated them carelessly, cheered when good things happened. It's rare for an author to not only draw you into a story, but make you a part of it as well.

Excellent read.

I read her first book "Where the Heart is" and just fell in love with her unique characters. No boring people here. The next book " Honk and Holler Opening Soon" I just couldn't put it down. I think I read almost the whole book in one night...I don't think I have ever done that ever before. I made all my friend read it...I lived in Texas for 10 years and understood the atmosphere. I don't think my yankee friends got it as much as I did, but I know they enjoyed it alot. Now that her first novel has gone to film...opening up the end of April 2000, I hope this book won't be far behind. The characters here were even more endearing. Listen Hollywood...this book would make an even better movie. Billie...when are you writing another book? I will be first in line to buy it. Please say it's almost here...

Like another amazon.com reviewer, I put off reading this book because I loved WHERE THE HEART IS so much. I didn't want to be disappointed. A clerk in a mall bookstore told me that this book was even better so I took a chance. It was WONDERFUL! I didn't want it to end. Although I loved WHERE THE HEART IS, I liked this book better. The story in this book was more plausible and realistic than WTHI (which even though I loved it,was a little unbelievable at times). Billie Letts is a masterful storyteller and I EAGERLY anticipate her next book. I won't wait to read it. I will be one of the first in line.

When I read and then finished Billie Letts's first book Where the Heart Is, I seriously doubted that I would ever read another book by this author I could enjoy more than this, her first title. But then I read The Honk and Holler Opening soon and I am now hard pressed to say which book I enjoyed more. So now let me say that perhaps Billie Letts's third book will break the tie. At least I am waiting ever so patiently for this book to be published as I imagine many of Ms. Letts's loyal fans are also doing.

The Honk and Holler is a roadside diner whch is populated by some local men who come in daily and truck drivers passing through. The diner is owned by Carney, a Vietnam veteran who lost both of his legs in the war. Carney is a former rodeo star who is so depressed that he never leaves the diner nor his bedroom in the back. Carney who is now confined to a wheelchair, dwells on that he lost his legs during a fall from a helicopter and not on the field of combat. But Carney has great suppport from a waitress named Mollie, who not only misses her husband but also worries about her runaway teenage daughter who has dreams of becoming a country western singer. And then one day two people seeking refuge and kindness arrive at the diner. One is Bui, a Vietnamense man, who works as a cook and is saving money to bring his wife to the US. And the other is Vena Take Horse, a Native American woman, with a history of drug abuse, a bad marraige and now has to deal with the suicide of her sister. How these four people help each other to put their lives back together with meaning and love provides the reader with many hours of pleasure and poignancy. It is as if the author allows us to take this wonderful journey with these memorable characters with us asking only to know more about them as we close the book.

Billie Letts has written a one of a kind book which ranks with other novels about lonely and unfulfilled people who finally find camaraderie and love. The setting of a dismal roadside stand with an opening sign never fixed right is the perfect place for these people to come together. How they try to brighten the diner for the holidays and ultimately brighten their own lives, is not only the background of this book but where the roots of this book are planted. This is a wonderful read and will appeal to those who have enjoyed books like The Bingo Queens of Paradise by June Park and Patty Jane's House of Curl by Lorna Landvik. Strong on emotion and characters, I can assure you that once you have read this book, you will never pass a roadside diner without thinking about Carney, Mollie, Vena and Bui and wondering how thay are doing.

I found this to be an absolutely wonderful story. The 'quirky cast of characters' is so charming I want to move in with these people! (Her other book, Where the Heart Is, is also a 5 star read! )

I Loved this author. After reading Where The Heart Is I couldn't wait to read another book and am anxiously awaiting for another novel. I fell in love with the chracter's who were so wonderfully portayed. I laughed and cried with them and felt like they really existed. This was truly enjoyable and heartwarming.

"The Honk and Holler Opening Soon" is Billie Letts second book. For all of you who read and loved "Where the Heart Is" (or even if you did not read it)----this book is even better. And it was even better the second time around......I loved it!!!

The characters are memorable, and what a cast: Caney Paxton, the cafe owner and a Vietnam vet who is wheelchair-bound because he fell out of a helicopter in Vietnam; MollyO, a waitress and Caney's surrogate mother; Bui, a Vietnamese refugee who sneaks into the local AME church to sleep and finds employment at the Honk and Holler; and Vena Takes Horses, a wanderer who just sort of lands at the cafe. Letts brings all of these characters, and others, to life and makes the reader care about them.

Set in a cafe in a small Oklahoma town, we are introduced to small-town life with all its foibles, its peculiar characters, and its conflicts.

I did not want this book to end. It made me laugh and it made me cry. It is a book about family and its importance, even though the family at the Honk and Holler was not related by blood but connected by a different bond.

By the way, "Honk and Holler" was published in August of 1999, long BEFORE Letts was anointed by Oprah in December of 1999. In fact, I remember being disappointed that this book was not the one Oprah chose.

I would heartily recommend this book and look forward to Letts' next one.

I loved this book and loved the characters in it. Where else would you find a paraplegic Vietnam veteran,an Indian woman with a mysterious past,a Vietnamese immigrant who deperately wishes to embrace all of the American culture and many other really interesting characters who all gather at a rather seedy,run-down truck stop cafe.It encompasses love,hate,despair,fear,heartbreak and pure happiness. All in all,it's a wonderful book.

Loved it, loved it, and so will you if you enjoy characters that are far from perfect with hearts as big as a Wal-Mart sign. The Honk and Holler reminds me of life in a small town where everyone meets at the local diner on a daily basis. Yes, all you city folks, places like this really exist where the lives of its inhabitants are entwined in a two-step of ups and downs.

Caney, a Viet Nam vet who lives his life in a wheel chair and runs the Honk and Holler just seems to pick up strays and not just the four-legged variety. Starting with the moment Vena Takes Horse shows up with a three-legged dog, his life is sent spinning into a direction that will never be the same again.

He is flanked and hovered over by Molly O who has decided to make Christmas "Merry" one way or the other, trimming the napkin holders with fuzzy haired Barbie dolls doing the splits. There are so many rich and interesting characters in this book that I miss them even now. How wonderful to find a group of people flawed yet caring enough to accept each other for the people they are.

Billie Letts brings it all together nicely at the end with a wrap up that will warm your heart. I have to be truthful, I figured out the ending, but it was the road I traveled to get to it that I enjoyed so much. Certainly worth a read, you won't be disappointed.